Countywide : Hot County 6 Days Behind the Calendar

Six days after the official beginning of autumn, Orange County continued to swelter in the same hot weather usually associated with summer.

At Fullerton’s Independence Park, the mercury hovered in the low 90s as the public swimming pool teemed with more than a hundred people trying to escape the heat.

“We are seeing a tremendous increase (in the number of swimmers) because of the hot weather,” said Rod Forsch, manager at the only public outdoor swimming facility in northern Orange County that does not close down during the usually cooler autumn and winter months.

“Usually, we see only 40 people in the pool in autumn,” Forsch said. “But because it was hot the past few days, we are seeing about 200 people daily, and we are very happy about that.”

The weather patterns that brought temperatures in the low 90s to parts of the county Monday are expected to linger through Wednesday, according to Rick Dittmann, a meteorologist at WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times.

Monday’s high temperature in Orange County was 97 degrees in Anaheim, up from an overnight low of 64, according to the National Weather Service.

That was well short of the record high for a Sept. 28, 113 set in Santa Ana in 1963.

Elsewhere in the county, the mercury hit 93 degrees in Lake Forest, 92 degrees in Santa Ana and 90 degrees in San Juan Capistrano.

On the coast, high temperatures were much lower, hitting only 73 in Newport Beach.

A ridge of high pressure situated over the county is responsible for the recent hot and sunny weather, according to Dittmann.

Forecasters expect that today’s weather will feature more clear skies, with afternoon temperatures in the 80s and 90s inland and in the 70s along the coastline.

“Over the next couple of days, we will remain quite warm,” Dittmann said.

“But it will get cooler toward the end of the week, and we will return to the seasonal normal temperatures.”

Dittmann predicted that the mercury will settle into the 70s and 80s across the county this weekend as a cold front moves in from the North Pacific.